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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27029728">Do Me  A Favor</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaT_John_Adams/pseuds/KaT_John_Adams'>KaT_John_Adams</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Elsewhere University (Webcomic)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:22:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>985</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27029728</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaT_John_Adams/pseuds/KaT_John_Adams</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by this Post: https://elsewhereuniversity.tumblr.com/post/168485311490/what-would-the-fae-do-with-someone-who-wouldnt</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Do Me  A Favor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Are you sure this is okay?”</p><p>Lei smiled grimly. “It’s fine. You’ll have ten new canvases in your dorm by nightfall.” The other student quirked an eyebrow but Lei offered no other information. The fine arts student had been granted a favor, nothing important, for gifting one of the Kindly Ones a sketch. But the student became nervous about calling in said favor and Lei was happy to buy it out from them. Lei rationalized that you could buy debt, and doing so had been a long standing practice. Why not buy Fey debt, too?</p><p>It had begun innocently enough; more a practice in “can you” than any sort of end-goal scheme. But things had changed. They’d changed horribly.</p><p>At first he’d done what he could to convince Fey to owe him a favor and refused when They attempted to come through. But They learned. Oh, They learned quickly. So he started buying the debt of others. Word spread quickly. He was generous, friendly, and it seemed fairly lacking in malice. All, incidentally, true. In his efforts to acquire ever more favors ranging from the small to the grand, he met someone that found his “hobby” amusing.</p><p>Her name was not Kithless, and Lei loved her dearly. She was a poli-sci major but played piano better than passably. They’d had a slow-starting romance, begun over class notes and friendship and shared angst over a lack of relationships due to simply being <em>too busy</em>. It’d been freeing, finally, to know someone who felt the same, who needed a companion and confidant more than a relationship or advocate. And ironically, that led them to their love.</p><p>Lei delighted in Kithless’ clever arguments and brilliant ability to deconstruct the assumed into the more elemental assumptions people made that served as their ideological foundations. She challenged his preconceptions and he grew as a person. She loved his ability to turn ideas on their heads, questioning those things the world took for granted and fighting for reason and compassion as two halves of a whole, rather than as opposites.</p><p>And, for a semester, they’d gotten on well.</p><p>But then Someone noticed what Lei had been doing. And that Someone told him to stop. In a moment of brash hubris, he offered to do so <em>as a favor</em>. </p><p>Lei remembered eyes as bright and green as burning acid and then woke in his own bed.</p><p>Kithless was not in class. Nothing was. And there was Nothing in her bed. Nothing in her dorm. Kithless had vanished and They had not even left a fetch. Lei knew that this was the proverbial horse’s head. <em>They were giving him notice. </em></p><p>He took with him no iron. He took no silver. There was no salt in his pockets. No icons of faith. All he had was a briefcase. And he walked into the woods.</p><p>The court welcomed him. They had his beloved Kithless on a thin gossamer chain tied around her neck. She stood, defiant, but afraid. Lei smiled at her and waited to be spoken to.</p><p>《We know who you are, child. We know what you do. You insult Us with your actions. We offer you the choice. Your life or hers. One of you walks out of here.》</p><p>Kithless held up her chin and shook her head. Lei thought perhaps she could not talk but he knew what it was she meant for him to "hear". She was too proud to be bartered; she was no property. She would rather die than be traded. Lei loved her for it, but he had other plans.</p><p>“I think not, gracious beings.” The host murmured and the room tightened like a threat.</p><p>《We do not think you are in a place to negotiate.》</p><p>Lei unlatched his briefcase. “See, I believe I am.” The host pulled back, concerned he’d attempted to bring weapons amongst Them. But was relieved to see nothing but paper and folders and pens.</p><p>《You are truly a fool. Even unarmed you come to demand things of us?》</p><p>Lei smiled, his face full of malice. “You all know what I’ve been doing, and you think I’m unarmed? Tell you what; let her go, let me go, and leave us alone, and I’ll stop my little hobby and give you this briefcase.”</p><p>The Lords glowered. 《What use is your satchel to us?》</p><p>The briefcase snapped shut with an authoritative crack. “Forty seven.”</p><p>Silence vibrated in the floor. “I have favors, small to large, from members of your Court. Forty seven in all. You take the briefcase and we walk out and everyone considers this done with, or I call on all forty seven favors to make me powerful and dangerous enough to take many of You out with me. There are two options - she and I leave here unharmed or I make you all regret it.”</p><p>《You <em>dare-</em>》</p><p>“<em>Yes</em>!” Lei shook the briefcase at Them. “<em>Hubris</em>! Hubris I am guilty of, but I concede the fact! Even <em>You</em> must concede that Hubris is a trap even for the Kind Folk! I offer you a chance for us all to avoid it or by all that is human I will make us all regret it.”</p><p>《And you would perish. We would not.》</p><p>“And you’re still hesitating. I am not”</p><p>There was a pause. A shudder as the host decided.</p><p>《<em>Leave.</em>》</p><p>Lei gently placed the briefcase on the floor. The chain around Kithless crumbled away and she, after making sure she was free, walked to Lei and took his hand. They bowed to the Host and she spoke, finally free. “I appreciate your hospitality and hold no animosity towards you. May our paths never cross again.”</p><p>The two walked from the hall and left the forest. The gentry ignored the two for the rest of their stay at the university. And word got around, if you ever needed a favor, talking to Lei could produce results.</p>
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